Kicking Off with SHOFCO
Challenge 1
Women's Safety
Nairobi, Kenya | November 17, 2014
Nearly one year ago, the Amplify program launched our first challenge. We asked a global community of collaborators how we might make low-income urban areas safer and more empowering for women and girls, and received more than 575 suggestions from more than 50 countries. The results were an inspiring mix of products, services, program and social businesses, each with their own unique take on how to address women’s safety. Three of those ideas were chosen to receive funding and design support from IDEO.org to take their ideas forward.
Now, several months later, we’re excited to kick off our first design support project with SHOFCO, a grassroots organization that provides a wide range of services for residents of the Kibera and Mathare slums of Nairobi, centered around their flagship school for girls.
SHOFCO’s Big Idea
The Gender Development Committee at SHOFCO is focused on addressing sexual and gender-based violence in Kibera and Mathare. The department consists of male and female case workers, who provide holistic support to survivors—legal accountability, medical treatment, counseling, and shelter—and conduct outreach around the community. In a 2007 study, 43% of sexually active adolescent girls in Kibera reported that their first sexual experience was forced, a statistic SHOFCO is determined to bring down.
During our first Amplify challenge, the SHOFCO team proposed an idea to use their many community programs to proactively engage men and boys in preventing sexual and gender-based violence through a targeted campaign and more male-friendly engagement tools.
Their idea was human-centered, well-researched, and a perfect fit for the scope of our challenge and Amplify’s finding, so we awarded them seed funding and the help of IDEO.org designers to get their idea off the ground.
How We are Going to Help
Amplify design support will look different for each of our Funded Ideas, as it depends on the scope, stage, and needs of each idea. For SHOFCO, we’re providing an intensive 7-week engagement with a team of three IDEO.org designers. Then, we’ll continue to provide coaching are feedback remotely over the next year as SHOFCO continues to implement—and iterate on—this idea.
Currently, the Gender Development Committee averages two reports of domestic abuse, rape, or harassment per week, nearly all reported by women. Because of this, the department is often perceived as a place for only women, a factor SHOFCO’s team suspects discourages men and boys from taking action. Over the next seven weeks, we’ll help SHOFCO design and test prototypes that engage men and boys as champions of ending gender-based violence.
Meet the Team
Rafael Smith, Designer
Anna Hartley, Writer + IDEO Designer
William Kamkwamba, Inventor + Global Fellow
Stay tuned for updates over the next few weeks as our team heads to Nairobi to kick off this project in-person with the SHOFCO team!
